Last year, 12 environmental impact studies were submitted in Central American countries for construction projects of buildings to be used by government institutions, files that together amount to an estimated investment of $140 million.
The interactive platform "Construction in Central America", from CentralAmericaData's Business Intelligence Area, provides an updated list of public and private construction projects that have submitted environmental impact studies (EIA) to the respective institutions in each country.
During 2020, it is estimated that the average price of a ton of steel increased 19%, a rise that impacts the construction industry and is explained by the increase in logistics costs and the suspension of the extraction of the material due to the outbreak of covid-19.
Central American businessmen report that during last year, which was marked by the sanitary and economic crisis, the average price per ton of steel increased by $130, going from $670 to $800.
The Legislative Assembly approved in second debate a bill that aims to tax in the country the sale and self-consumption of imported or locally produced cement.
The initiative, which was approved in the first debate in the Assembly in mid-February and is still pending approval by the Executive Branch, establishes that the tax will be on imported cement produced nationally, in bags or in bulk, for sale or self-consumption, of any kind, whose destination is the consumption and marketing of the product nationally.
Because of flaws in the estimates of costs of the work, in Costa Rica the Comptroller's Office declared unviable the tender to build a sports center, supposedly valued at $40 million.
In July 2016, the Solis administration announced explicitly that they were preparing to tender, at the beginning of 2017, the construction of a 25,000 square meter aquatic center and a 36,000 square meter sports center in San José, for a total cost of $40 million.
While in the US the number of man hours needed to build a house is 9.4 hours per square meter, in Costa Rica it takes between 40 and 60.
Low labor productivity, on top of the cost of building materials, social charges and high costs of other materials such as energy, are preventing firms from being more competitive in an industry where both end house prices for completed works and gray works, exceed those in neighboring countries.
Contribution to GDP by country: Panama - 17.4%, Honduras - 6.4%, Nicaragua - 5.3%, Costa Rica - 5.1%, El Salvador- 3.0%, Guatemala - 2.8%.
A report by the Regional Organization of Chambers of the Construction Industry in Central America and the Caribbean (Ordecccac) provides figures for the construction sector in 2012 for the countries in the region, as well as projections for 2013 and 2014.